boxes of pictures, files of pictures, cameras full of pictures, pictures online, on the phone, everywhere!!!!

what to do with them all!??!?!?

I have pics still waiting for me to do something with from when DH and I were dating! And baby#2...I haven't even started her baby book yet. baby #1 is 6yo...not a baby anymore...when do I find time to do anything, and, bigger question, what?

My mom has tons of pictures in picture books, but no one looks at them. They're in a bookcase. Hidden away, just as if they were stuck in the computer.

So, what to do? collages? how many can one house hold? Do we just take too many pictures?

One of the easiest things you can do is order photobooks. I have used Shutterfly, but now that I have a Mac, I order my photobooks from Mac.

There are several methods you could use, but in your situation I would put all the digital images on your computer (first uploading those from cameras and phones) in chronological order, then choose the ones you like best and upload them into a photobook with appropriate captions, perhaps a book for each year.

I have printed the hard cover photobooks from each of our recent vacations. They are almost coffee table type books. The spine has the title on it, so it is easy to locate the book I'd like to view when sitting on a shelf. I keep the books in the living room and my DD loves to look at them (also less stress than traditional books because I could always order another copy if she ruined one). We have taken two trips with families members and I printed a second copy to give to the grandmother who went with us (another nice bonus to photobooks).

I am currently working on my 2009 family album - it will have to be split into two books because I take a lot of pictures too! Then I'll tackle our more recent vacation (1,100+ photos to sort through from that one).

It is still time intensive, but I find it easier than dealing with prints and scrapbooking (which I used to do a lot of) because the only thing I need is my laptop so there's no mess to get out and put away each time I want to work on the albums.

The books end up costing me about $50 per book. When I think back to my days of buying rolls of film at $3 per roll, then developing them at $12 per roll, and needing to take dozens of rolls to get some great shots, the digital camera/photobook combo starts seeming like a really good deal!

storage is first. we digitized everything--including the regular printed photos. I culled ones that i no longer wanted or that were very redundant. For old photographs (from my childhood for example), there might be 50 photos of me at christmas in those PJs. I would choose the most iconic image, scan it, and dump the rest. i keep them on a thumb drive, so they aren't actually on a computer.

rotating art is probably the next place i would go. print out your favorites from the collection in color or black and white, and in a large size. get simple frames from a craft store or Ikea, and put up those images. Perhaps you have a plce where you have three images at a time--a collection of 3 in an entryway for example. Choose images seasonally, and switch them out each season. then the pictures rotate through.

i have a picture up now that i love--it's hawk in his first mud puddle, taken about a year ago. i also have a great picture from his first birthday, and then one from his birthday itself (his first photograph). of course, DS's birthday is soon, so it's a good choice.

I find that doing it seasonally is great: family photos from christmas past, easter photos in spring, back to school photos in autumn, photos from our wedding/honeymoon around our anniversary, birthday photos around birthdays, etc etc. Honestly, it's really fun AND you aren't saturated with photos.

I keep the ones not in use in a file (acid free) with the seasonal stuff for our nature table (which is just starting out here, i usually just collect from nature so that it can go back out to compost) and seasonal decorations. I try to keep this to one box, as we don't have a lot of storage, so simple things like these photos and things that can be stored flat are my favorites.

and it's cool, because if i decide i want a different photo, i just go to my thumb drive and away you go.

I just started this and posted about it on the 52 project thread. I finally collected all the printed out pics (dont ask me why I bothered to print them) and purchased a photo storage box - i was so photo challenged I needed to ask on here HOW TO USE THE DARN BOX... So the pics are gathered, thinned out and basically in order.

I have one scrapbook from when DS was a baby and I love it... I never ordered one online , but i've been meaning to...

I need to cull from my old computer before the year is over too... oh man you are making me nervous and in a panic... I NEED HELP... lol

I also NEED to get a shadow box made of DS 'going home from the hospital' outfit w. crib card and ankle bracelet.... Im ONLY 10 yrs late on that too...

I also wanted to share this idea that I came across somewhere (which I *swore* I was going to have completed by DD's 1 yr bday - hey she turned 1 last week and I am ordering tomorrow so I feel like it's close enough!): I just made a photo book of DD's 1st year that has 26 pages in it, ie 52 photos, one for each week of the year. It's something I'd like to keep up as she grows up. It was pretty hard sometimes to pick just one photo from a given week but now that the book is together I love it! It's almost like a growth flip-book to see how much she has changed in just one year. If you're wondering how I knew which week the photos were from: I jot down quick notes about our day's activities on my calendar that I can reference, and if you have iPhoto you probably know already that it stores the info about the photos, including date shot.